3 Key Words for Paladins: Still In Beta

Paladins is a charming first-person hero shooter with a lot of potential. However, it has been like this for quite some time. That is to say, although it has great potential, it has, in 69 open beta patches, yet to fulfill this potential.

Let's initially talk through the mechanics of a normal siege game in Paladins. It is a 5v5 objective based game mode where said objective is to capture and then subsequently 'push' what is known as the payload. In order to do this, your team will need the right balance and coordination to achieve this objective and defeat the opposing team. With this comes different roles players can select before the game via their champion selection.

The aforementioned roles are as follows:

Frontline- A high health, and usually high shielding champion which is normally used to protect characters that are more easily killed as well as soak up damage and spend time on the objective.

Flank- A high mobility character used to reach the backlines of the enemy team in order to kill high damage characters. Flankers usually do a lot of 'burst' damage and are able to kill a low health character quickly. However, they do have low health and can become isolated which means that movement and 'map awareness' is key.

Damage- A simply, straightforward, high damage character. The main aim when playing this role is to simply to as much damage as you can in order to clear space for your frontlines (or sometimes your support) to capture and push the objective.

Support- A character who is able to heal other characters' health at a quick and efficient rate. The support can be a turning point in a game as healing the right character at the right time can swing the game one way or another.

The gameplay itself is a lot of fun as it's a fast-paced and unique first-person shooter game. The different characters help players establish their main roles and playstyle meaning the game has a lot of appeal to a variety of gamers. The team function adds another factor to an already exciting game.

However, as the title suggests, the game is still in beta. I've heard varying stories about the full release date with some sources saying as early as September, yet many players argue that it is not ready to be fully released.

Up until recently, there were a lot of bugs with various abilities the champions had as well as their interactions with certain maps. Furthermore, the mechanic of building items and loadouts for your characters, whilst giving the player vast options for customization, gives the game a somewhat unstable feel as these loadouts and items are constantly changed based on whether the playerbase and the developers consider them overpowered or underpowered.

Therefore, Paladins is an entertaining first-person shooter which is well worth playing, and committing time to. I myself have over 500 hours played and I still greatly enjoy the experiences. It has its quirks and I hope that these quirks are worked out before release, however it is an entertaining game for casual and competitive players alike.